Invisible Excavators: The Quftis of Megiddo, 1925–1939.

The staff members from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago who oversaw the excavations at Megiddo relied upon skilled Egyptian workmen (Quftis) as well as local labourers during their excavations from 1925–1939. However, although there were more than fifty of these Egyptian workmen in all, only a few are mentioned in the preliminary and final publications produced by the project. They are what Stephen Quirke has called 'hidden hands' on excavations; an example of 'invisible labor', as discussed by anthropologists and sociologists. In any effort to reconstruct the lives and labours of these men, we are now at the mercy of what can be found in various archival sources. Data must be gleaned from, for example, requests for half-price railway vouchers for travel between Kantara and Haifa for specific workmen each season; field diary entries; black and white photographs; and occasional mentions in budgets or in passing within letters sent back and forth between Megiddo and Chicago. Still, from this fragmentary information, we can piece together a picture of these unsung members of the expedition, some of whom were present at Megiddo for more seasons than the ever-rotating members of the Chicago staff themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]